Guest Review: Drawing with Light by Julia Green

Title: Drawing with Light

Author: Julia Green

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Publication Date: 1 Mar 2010

Synopsis from Goodreads

Kat and Emily have grown up without their mother for almost as long as they can remember. And now Dad is with Cassy and they all muddle along together well enough - even though they are living in a cramped caravan while their new house is being renovated. Then Cassy and Dad tell them that Cassy is pregnant, and everything seems to shift. Emily feels a new urge to find her own mother. How could she have left them the way she did? Never writing to them? Not communicating with them? And as Emily begins her search, not knowing what she will find, she is at the same time embarking on a new relationship of her own, that of her romance with Seb. This is an evocative and finely drawn novel about family relationships, in particular that of mother and daughter, and the shifting emotions of a teenager trying to make sense of her family and her world.

GUEST REVIEW BY SHELLY OF MY FAVOURITE READS

“Freya has come back to the remote island where her Grandparents live, and where last summer her brother Joe died in a boating accident. But what really happened that night? Freya is not convinced that it was an accident and feels as if Joe’s presence is still haunting her.”

This is my second Julia Green book and I really enjoy her descriptive way of writing. She really brings you into the story within a short space of time and you quickly grow to like the characters. Freya, the main character, is a young girl trying to get over the death of her brother and being back on the island where it all happened she wants to get to the bottom of the accident and understand what Joe was thinking at the time. I found myself really warming to her and to try and understand her grief and the impact it had had on her family. I think the poignant way that the author captures her grief is beautifully written and sometimes makes you think that Freya is older that her fourteen years.

Nothing much happens in the book but throughout it you get to understand how Freya copes with the loss and how much it takes her to be able to move on with her life. The rest of the characters are written exceptionally well and you really do get the feeling that you are sharing Freya’s summer experiences with her. Julia Green’s descriptive writing really comes alive when she is talking about the Island and some of the words and phrases she uses really captures summer evenings, picnics and being a teenager falling in love for the first time.

It says on the front of the book that Julia Green is a writer to watch and I for one will be looking forward to reading more of her work.